I know the accepted norm is that if you can only grow one lot of spuds, grow earlies. But why? 

I am growing Elfe maincrop from Lidl and Charlotte earlies from B&M seed tatties. The Charlotte are rubbish this year (whether that's because of where I bought them from , I know not. Suffice to say I won't be buying seed tatties or onion sets from B&M any more.)

I digress, next year I will only grow maincrop spuds because even if you lift them early, at the same time you would lift earlies you get a decent tasty crop of new potatoes. The bonus is the longer you leave them the bigger the crop will be so you have the best of both worlds.

As an aside Jersey Royals are a maincrop  International Kidney, just lifted early. If left to mature JR's make huge maincrop potatoes.

 No so  called earlies for me next year just mains.

As some of you would have seen from previous threads this year was a bit of the test / see what happens on the plot with the first year of planting.
 
This brings me on to my strawberries, these are 2 years old and to date I’ve had little or no fruit. My assumption is this is because I’ve overcrowded the bed and cut little or no runners off, would this be correct?
 
Anyway I spent an hour this morning weeding and pruning and have circa 18 new plants for their new, better prepared bed next year?
 
Isn’t it wonderful how easy they are to propagate?

I was wondering what other thought about what happened to the in-laws the other day. The council came out to remove a hornets nest from a tree in their front garden and charged them £69 for the privilege. They were neither aware of the nest or had called them, apparently someone had called the council as the hornets were flying around on the footpath close by. 

Now if I was to call out the council to remove something from my property rats for example I wouldn’t be charged. So why are my in laws being charged for the removal of a wild animal that has chosen to nest in their garden, when they weren’t the one to request it. Seems more than a little off to me. What do you think?

Anyone any idea what could be causing this damage or how they would go about trying to find the culprit? The first year we had a good crop of nectarines but last year, most were damaged and rotted before ripening and the same looks likely to happen this year.

I've seen ants about in the polytunnel and on the tree also quite a few flies but no wasps. I do get some slug damage on other plants.

   

Mint Wine

In the recipe below, I used a blend of spearmint and regular peppermint. Use whatever mints you have! I can imagine the lovely twist that could happen if you used chocolate mint, or pineapple mint… warning - this was my first attempt so may need tweaking x

Ingredients 
4 litres of water
4 cups of fresh mint leaves (rinsed and removed from the stem)
Around a kilo of sugar, or more if you prefer
1 packet of yeast (a sweet wine or mead yeast is nice, but even baking yeast works in a pinch!)
handful of raisins, chopped, or yeast nutrient

Method
1. Boil most of the water in a large pot. While that is happening, sanitize your demijohn, funnel, strainer, and your airlock and bung.
2. Remove the pot from heat and get ready to add the mint leaves and raisins. Crumple the leaves to bruise them and release their essential oils as you add them to the pot. Cover the pot and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes.
3. Pour the sugar into the warm mint tea and stir to dissolve. leave to steep overnight.
4. Strain the mint tea into the demijohn and top it off with the rest of the filtered water to the neck. Add the bung and airlock to the jug. Toss the leaves in your compost bin.
5. When the demijohn is filed, sprinkle in the packet of yeast and give it a shake. Within a day or two, the jug should be bubbling happily. It should be happy to sit and bubble for a month or so.
6. When the bubbles stop and the liquid is clear, it is time to bottle!

Apparently this golden brew already tasted great at bottling time, and it only became more and more delicious as it aged throughout the year. The longer it ages, the more minty it becomes.

Hi all,

I remember someone mentioning a bitter courgette on here last month. So when I saw this warning, via a fb group, I thought I should share here NB alythrough the post is 2013, the comments and reponse from Fothergills is 2020.

"Hello everyone and I am the social media manager for Mr Fothergill’s. As posted by Mark Carroll above, we have recently become aware of this issue with a small number of people being in touch with our Customer Services team about bitter courgettes. The variety involved is Courgette Zucchini with batch code I printed on the back of the packet next to the barcode. We have withdrawn all stocks of this seed immediately, recalled all stocks in garden centres and are currently contacting customers we know to have bought this variety by mail order.

We are very sorry to hear of the discomfort suffered by anyone who has an affected plant, though there seem to be only some rogue seeds amongst the batch, with some packets causing no problem at all. As pointed out in this thread already, it has likely resulted from an inadvertent cross-pollination in the plants that produced the seeds. We would urge anyone who has a packet of these seeds to get in contact with us by email on debbie.porter@mr-fothergills.co.uk

If you have grown a plant from these seeds, you can taste-test the fruits before consuming them by cutting them a licking the flesh. Affected fruits are extremely bitter and an indication you should destroy the plant. Please do not consume the fruits of any plants that have produced bitter tasting fruits.

Thank you for your patience and understanding."

https://www.bhaf.org.uk/content/advice/g...eYY57jkkzQ

Hello Folks
 
Looking at these for next year, so far I’ve seen/read about MDPE and Conduit, do people have views on what’s best or perhaps there is something else you use?


I can't see a lot of price different plus the conduit is already cut into lengths (obviously only good if the lengths are what you want)

:    

Self explanatory!!
What's your Anecdote?

It was during the 1996 Royal Variety Performance when I rode Sally, a two-humped camel with Housewives favourite, Jeremy Paxman!!

Scallop squash monster, but pretty

   

i notice a lot of house flights, midges and other flies in my poly tunnel, I don’t know if they are doing any good or any harm. I also have a few bees in pollinating plants.
I was just wondering if I put a few Venus flytraps in the tunnel would this get rid of the flies and midges ?
Anybody ever try something like this ?